A device driver is a program that controls a device, such as a hardware component of a computer, or a peripheral device attached to a computer. The driver is typically installed so as to become bound with the operating system of the computer to which the device is connected. The installation is done by a driver installer, which takes a driver program from a driver package and installs it for use with the operating system.
The specifics of the installation process may be based, to some degree, on aspects of the target installation environment. For example, the driver installation process may be different for different operating systems, or for different versions of an operating system (e.g., the process could be different for the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the WINDOWS operating system), or for different underlying processors. Thus, different driver installers may be used for different target environments, so that the driver installer can take specifics of the target environment into account in the installation process.
Additionally, people who install drivers may sometimes wish to determine which devices are supported in a particular driver package before performing the installation.